M-358 Talon/ME3MP
|Text=Edit this tab}} Description The Talon is a close-range pistol favored by Cerberus Guardians. Firing heavy-gauge shotgun pellets, it delivers massive trauma to unarmored targets. Its waste heat is sufficiently excessive that it carries six separate ammunition blocks, rotating like a twentieth-century revolver to prevent shaver jam or misfire due to premature melting of the shot. Acquisition Weapons are randomly rewarded through purchases of item packs. The M-358 Talon is categorized as ultra-rare. Player Notes *Equipping the Talon with a Pistol Scope will largely negate the weapon's difficulty of hitting targets at long range, allowing the player to use it at medium to long ranges and down certain enemies in one or two shots. *Its main downside is that it's a very heavy pistol, and thus takes room away from other weapons, but as far as pistols go it's a great alternative to sniping with an M-6 Carnifex or M-77 Paladin. However, it has far greater recoil than either of them, making it harder to rapidly headshot groups of enemies. *For classes that rely on power usage, the Talon makes a great primary weapon. Its high power and range make it a versatile weapon that is useful in most multiplayer scenarios. *An M-11 Wraith performs better in mid-range combat, however the Talon has more shots per clip, and with Pistol Magazine Upgrade mod it can have 7 shots, which makes it very deadly in close-range. Adding a Pistol Piercing Mod allows it to out-Damage Per Second (DPS) any shotgun against armor. *The Talon is also the only heavy pistol that can effectively negate most of the effects of the "Shield-Gate" despite its power, due to its shotgun nature. This makes the Talon very effective on Gold difficulties since the pellets can allow users to bypass any shield issues they may have. *The Talon can one-shot headshot many enemies on bronze if used with the damage bonus from Adrenaline Rush or Tactical Cloak, such as Centurions, Marauders, Phantoms, and Geth Pyros. This puts it on par with many sniper rifles, and yet it is lighter than most comparable sniper rifles and can be used effectively at short range too. *When used with Marksman, the fire cap of the Talon is greatly increased, allowing for a magazine to be fired very rapidly. This is excellent at taking out armoured opponents at close range. *On a specialized Turian Soldier, a low level Talon with the Pistol Cranial Trauma System and Marksman is able to kill almost any trooper-level enemy on Gold in one clean headshot. As the Talon gains levels, even Dragoons, Phantoms, Geth Pyros and Possessed Troopers can be felled in one shot. *Another effective way of taking on armored opponents is pairing the Talon with a biotic class that can use Warp for softening the target first. This is especially effective against Geth Pyros and can also be used to great effect against shields and barriers. *With Pistol Piercing Mod and Pistol Heavy Barrel/Pistol High-Caliber Barrel mods, the Talon makes soloing heavy enemies such as the Brute or Atlas a viable strategy. Against the Brute, simply back up while firing and find a solid object to put between it and you to stop its charge. Against the Atlas, take cover and blind-fire between the Atlas' own shots. The Atlas is so large that the reduced accuracy shouldn't matter. With a level I or II Talon, it will take less shots than the gun's spare ammo capacity on both Bronze and Silver. If using a class with an anti-armor power, the Talon's reload animation can be interrupted with it to do even more damage. *The Talon greatly benefits from the accuracy bonus given by firing from cover. It won't be sufficient to use it as a makeshift sniping weapon like the Carnifex, but its effective range will be greatly extended to allow for all but the farthest of longshots. This removes the need to use a Pistol Scope and frees up the second mod slot. *At rank X the weight of the Talon is such that, on the Adept, taking the class training's Rank 4 evolution for weight and power bonus will result in retaining a 200% cooldown bonus. (This assumes that no other weapon is taken.) This frees up a weapon mod slot that might have been taken up by the Pistol Ultralight Materials mod. *Adding a Pistol Scope to the Talon greatly tightens the pellet spread such that at medium range it is possible to land headshots with all 6 pellets. This lets it take down most if not all non-boss enemies in 1 to 2 shots. Adding one of the barrel mods and equipping Armor-Piercing Rounds give one the ability to deal with Guardians with ease. Another option is to take the Pistol Scope and Pistol Piercing Mod, resulting in excellent penetrating power with precision. Unscoped shots do not have as tight a grouping as scoped shots, but are tighter than firing a Talon without the Pistol Scope mod equipped. *The Talon has a natural shield damage bonus multiplier which makes it good against shields, add a Pistol Piercing Mod and the Talon can now do good damage against shields and armor.